Fit Friday|It’s Not What You Lose, It’s What You Gain

It’s funny how easy it is to put the weight on. Slowly over time you find your shirts fitting more snugly and your pants getting tight. Before you know it you’re buying clothes a size (or two) bigger and don’t know how you gained the weight! It takes conscious choices and dedicated effort to lose the weight. As much as I want it to fall off after one workout, I remind myself I didn’t gain it overnight so I won’t lose it overnight either… For this week’s Fit Friday I found a video on YouTube that reminded me that as much as I despise exercising, it’s not about what you lose, it’s about what you gain.

Losing the weight for me means feeling like I’m myself again. The extra weight makes me feel like I’m in a sci-fi series, and I’m wearing someone else’s body. I’m on a weekend trip to San Diego with my family and instead of finding clever ways to cover myself up or just stay out of pictures because I’m heavier than I’d like to be, I’m going to say screw it and take the pictures anyway! My family knows what I look like and taking the pictures instead of being in them is just depriving myself of being included in photos that bring back fond memories. I love the results that she got in just three months, there’s nothing keeping me from doing that but myself. As much as I’d like to feel amazing in my bikini this weekend, I’m going to focus on the memories, the good times, and be in the moment. I’m going to keep the results of this video in mind and get more active so that by the time my birthday rolls around at the end of the year, I’ll be excited to be in pictures instead of jump at the chance to take them!

What would you gain by losing the weight? Are you dedicated to your fitness regimen? What’s your favorite summer activity to get/stay in shape? What’s your fitness mantra? Feel free to share all things weight loss and fitness in the comments! Happy Friday everyone!

11 Replies to “Fit Friday|It’s Not What You Lose, It’s What You Gain”

I’m going to be totally honest with you. I hate your fit Friday posts. There is so much unhealthy and even dangerous “information” and recommendations from”qualified” trainers and professionals unqualified websites, and it feeds a culture that is obsessed with body image, numbers on a scale, and “doing it right.” There is this disordered idea out there that everything will be better if we only find the right meal plan, find the right workout regimen, or lose 10 lbs. You’re stressed out? We’ll have you been exercising? Not sleeping well? You probably need to stop eating sugar. Acne or digestive problems? Must be the gluten. Most of the conversations even in the healthcare realm misses the point, and much of the guidance and advice from “creditable” resources actually has no backing by science. Why can’t we have conversations about mindful eating, acceptance of our bodies regardless of weight or shape, and health as a holistic concept that does not revolve around weight but addresses mind-body-spirit and communities?

Yeah I think that’s probably a better approach. I’m not sure where I’d find information like that, I’d need to dig deeper. I do try to be selective of what I share. I know this journey us different for everyone but I do think a good healthy diet is important along with being active. This post was meant to encourage people like me who spend time missing out on life because we aren’t where we want to be physically. This is more about my journey to love and embrace myself where I’m at while wanting to get my regular self back. I definitely don’t want to contribute to an unhealthy conversation around this topic. I’m sorry if this offended you in any way, we’ve gotten to know each other over the past several months and I know you’re coming from a good place when you say this. Please know that my intentions behind fit Friday are to encourage others struggling with weight issues. I’ll try to find a better way to get it out there. Happy Friday Lulu!

I agree with Lulu. Exercise and eating less processed foods are things that are healthier for everyone, regardless of whether or not they bring about weight loss. In fact, discouragement because exercise doesn’t cause the desired weight loss can cause people to stop exercising.

I was floored when I found out that food has more to o with weight loss than exercise. I definitely feel better after a workout but I need to remember that my food choices are a bigger factor in weight loss than exercise and think of exercise as toning. I bring up the weight loss aspect in my posts because that’s what my fitness journey looks like right now. 🙂

Niki, sorry for the rant above! Most of it really isn’t about you, but about our society’s preoccupation with dieting and obsession with body image in general. The video sort of set me off. Sorry! I know you encourage people to be holistically healthy in mind-body-spirit and encourage acceptance through your blog.

I’m sorry, that was the farthest thing from my intention. When I saw it, I realized that it’s my lack of dedication and that if I can just stick with what I’m doing consistently I’ll see results. For me it’s not really the weight, I’m 30 pounds overweight but I just don’t feel like myself. If my fit Friday posts are triggers for you, I’d encourage you to read posts every day except Friday. It’s not something I talk about on any other day. ❤

Niki, thank you so much for your very thoughtful, considerate, and compassionate reply to my comment, which, I admit, was pretty anxiety-fueled. One of the things I am working on with my therapist is making progress toward being less triggered by the choices that other people make regarding their bodies, health, diet, and exercise. I guess it just makes me sad (and upset) when I see people falling victim to the idea that weight = feeling good/acceptance/health. The physical changes that you’re talking about, feeling like you have more energy and feeling comfortable in your own body, being able to enjoy the activities that you love, don’t necessarily depend on losing 30 lbs, but are more dependent on making healthy lifestyle choices. To me, being healthy is much more about being forgiving of myself for not being perfect, making good choices, but not perfect choices, being active, but not being rigidly adherent to a workout regimen, and understanding that what I eat and how much exercise I get will ebb and flow necessarily with the activities of my life. One of the insights that I gained from reading some daily meditations by Anne Wilson Schaef was that balance is about adjusting to all the little, constant, unbalancing forces that always seem to be pulling me in one direction or another. But again, that’s me. As my mom would say, “It takes all sorts of people to make the world work.” That is a sentiment I must remind myself of constantly!

If you’re interested at all in learning about mindful eating, I love the below TED talk. There’s also a link to an article that I really love about how weight does not equate to health.

As someone who yo-yo dieted and struggled with eating disorders (still battling the eating disorder aspect) from the time I was 12 until the time I was 45, I refuse to ever jump on the diet bandwagon again. If I hadn’t discovered health at every size (everyone should google this) and size acceptance, I would be 51 years old, still hating my body (which is never going to be thin) and still calling myself names like fat pig, ugly cow, and worse.
Diets don’t work in the long term for most people. We can often lose weight short term only to regain it plus more. I literally had to stop dieting so I wouldn’t get fatter.
I refuse to go to my grave hating myself for my body. I’m fat, always will be fat unless I end up with a horrific disease such as acute myelogenous leukemia, which took my great grandmother from 300 pounds to 95 in the space of less than a year, and then killed her.
There are healthy people of all sizes. The so called diseases of obesity are actually diseases of aging. People of all sizes get them. These include hypertension (which isn’t a disease in and of itself), heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. One cannot eat oneself into diabetes, as it happens. One can only develop diabetes if one has the genetic trigger.
I have a tendency to get on my soapbox when I see pro-dieting posts, because Diet Culture caused me to despise myself for more than half my life. No more!

I’m sorry for the struggles you’ve had but glad that you love the skin you’re in!

I don’t know if your comment is in response to this post specifically as it doesn’t mention dieting. I agree that weight isn’t an indication of health, but personally I feel better about myself when I’m at my ideal weight which happens to be 20 pounds heavier than is considered “healthy” for my height 😉

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